Bill over at fertanish.net has discovered his homemade 10 gallon terrarium is certainly harboring some stow-away critters that hitched rides on his initial soil and plant supply. While oft times these unexpected terrarium inhabitants are unwanted - I agree with Bill that they can also provide a neat little opportunity to watch the critters in action.
I collected soil from the back yard; I'm sure I captured a number of slug eggs as they are appearing everywhere. I've also found at least one Sow Bug, a couple of earth worms, possibly two centipedes, and a couple of spiders. Amusingly, the millipedes have mostly dug under for the winter; I now barely see them at all.
I focused building the terrarium for insects rather than plants, but certainly didn't consider starting an ecosystem. It's very entertaining.
fertanish.net
Wow, I was the opposite with my terrarium! I started with a 5.5 gallon tank to house a colony of 50 or so sow bugs I took after my ecology class was done with them. All they had was 4 inches of potting soil, a layer of dead leaves, and some rocks. Now almost 3 months later the tank still holds my sow bugs(including their many babies), along with another genus of wood louse, Armadillidum, millipedes, a centipede, a wolf spider, and some newly hatched crickets. I traded my leaf litter for clumps of sheet moss collected from the local woods(which brought along more critters) and added some "terrarium plants" purchased at a nearby store. I also bought an nice screen top lid for it and a full spectrum uva/uvb light. I couldn't imagine my terrarium without all the little inverts. that live in it. Something's always moving and even without having introduced anything to it for over a month now, I'm still seeing new critters pop up =)
ReplyDeleteThat certainly sounds like a lively terrarium!
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